Want to virtually travel the world? Google Earth VR now works on Oculus Rift

With Google Earth VR, you’re transported to a specific location within seconds, almost as if you’re actually standing there in real-life.

Google Earth VR puts the whole world within your reach, and a recent update now makes it officially available for free for Oculus users.

Leveraging Google’s mapping technology, Google Earth VR aims to help the world see the world, where users can fly over a city, stand at the edge of a mountain, and even go into space. Google’s official announcement update explains why support for Oculus came several months after the HTC Vive:

“We made sure that navigating the planet in Earth VR on Rift with Touch feels natural, comfortable, and immersive, so that even more people can fly over cities and stand on top of mountains in VR. We thought a lot about the button mapping to make sure it was intuitive and took advantage of the Touch controllers’ precise analog sticks, which are a great fit for the way you move around in Earth VR.” (via UploadVR)

In the demo GIF above, you might notice a pretty nifty feature that allows users to search for specific places just like you would with Google Maps. Instead, in Google Earth VR, you’re transported to that location within seconds, almost as if you’re actually standing there in real-life.

Google constantly adds new locations for users to explore, and if you want to learn more about Google Earth VR’s technology, you can read more about it on UploadVR here, or watch the official Google Earth VR video below.

Perhaps you’re new to VR, or you just want to learn some of the latest trends and best practices from virtual reality experts. If either of those apply to you, you can watch dozens of Social Media Week talks about VR by subscribing to SMW Insider, our on-demand video platform full of past events and exclusive interviews. You can also read our recently-published article “5 Industry Experts Share Their Top Advice for Creating VR Content” on SMW News.

SMW Staff

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